Der Blogger

"Enough is enough!" "This can't go on!" "This has to stop!" These were among the comments that came through the blizzard of commentary after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. We have heard these words before.

Wanderlust

As a travel destination, Germany has never been more popular. With tourist numbers forecast to rise for an eighth consecutive year, what is the country doing right to account for its thriving visitor numbers?

Akademia

For education experts, English language lessons have proven valuable in primary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. But the Alternative for Germany’s state parliamentary group in NRW have a rather different view.

Essen & Trinken

Police in the city of Osnabrück had to clear crowds in front of a new döner kebab shop on Tuesday, after about 150 hungry people packed the street outside, eager to get their hands on a döner for only €0.01.

Germericana

Many Americans have German ancestors — and that's also the case for actress Meghan Markle, who will be marrying Prince Harry, himself a descendant of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German dynasty.

Volkswagen to sponsor German national football team

The new deal to sponsor the current world champions comes as VW struggles with the fallout of its “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal and Mercedes-maker Daimler also faces accusations it rigged air pollution tests.

The advertising marriage of VW and “Die Mannschaft”, as Germans call their team, starts on January 1, 2019 and runs until July 31, 2024.

No financial details were released, but German media said Wolfsburg-based VW would pay the German Football Association DFB €25-30 million ($28-34 million) a year, far more than Daimler has paid.

Germany supporters hold a large banner reading ‘The team’ (Die Mannschaft) before the Euro 2016 round of 16 football match between Germany and Slovakia at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, near Lille, on June 26, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / DENIS CHARLET

“Volkswagen and the number one national sport — that’s a great partnership,” said Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, pledging that it was committed to “all German football, with its 25,000 clubs and seven million members (of the federation)”.

DFB president Reinhard Grindel said: “Volkswagen, as a globally operating company, is a strong partner to further advance our internationalisation, especially in China.”

He hinted at the emissions cheating scandal, saying that “the DFB and VW are united on the need to learn from past mistakes and take the right measures in the future”.

‘Great challenges’

Volkswagen Group, which also owns Audi, Porsche, Seat and other brands, in 2015 admitted that it had manipulated emissions readings on some 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.

Investigators found that VW used so-called defeat devices, making vehicles appear to comply with environmental standards when actual emissions were much higher.

The carmaker has so far set aside more than 22 billion euros to cover fines and compensation related to the scandal, but experts estimate the final bill could be much higher.

VW has since pledged to become the world leader in clean, electric vehicles, and Diess said that “for the next few years, we have set ourselves a lot of goals as a company”.

“Volkswagen is changing. We face great challenges. This includes helping the breakthrough of electro-mobility,” he said, adding that “the partnership with the DFB will help us to reach the people” with these ideas.

Meanwhile, Stuttgart-based Daimler has also been accused of having manipulated the engines of around one million diesel vehicles.

German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and two broadcasters, citing a search warrant, said the company “sold vehicles with higher levels of damaging emissions than allowed for almost a whole decade between 2008 and 2016, in Europe and the United States”.

A Daimler spokeswoman contacted by the news agency AFP declined to comment on an ongoing investigation, but said the carmaker was cooperating with the authorities.

Kultur

The German term "Heimat," often translated as "homeland," was long thought of as tacky, regressive, and even politically dubious. But since the election, German politicians across the spectrum are using it once again.

Das Kino

This month's Berlin film festival, Europe's first major cinema showcase in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, will shine a light on sexual misconduct in the industry, its director said on Tuesday.

Gesundheit

In the run-up to international World Cancer Day on Sunday, experts have said that about half of all cancer cases in Germany could be prevented by a healthier lifestyle. Across the country, around 500,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year. But experts say things like exercise could cut this figure in half. “Movement can […]